It's Dark Outside

Last Saturday I watched the monologue The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer, created by Tim Watts. Tonight, I was back again to watch another show called It's Dark Outside, also created by Tim Watts, along with Arielle Gray and Chris Isaacs. 

This performance was another amazing show involving puppetry, live acting and animation. The theme was centred around Alzheimer's disease/dementia, and was a bit heavier than The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik which was very sweet and lighthearted. 

The puppetry was absolutely amazing! These three are just so incredibly talented and brought all the props to life. The movements were so natural that you forgot the actors were even there. I highly recommend It's Dark Outside for anyone interested in something different. You definitely won't see anything like it!

The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer; and my homemade nacho hat

I over committed to my something new for today. I had originally planned to just go and watch a performance called The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer at the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia, but my brother found out that I was planning to make a nacho hat and he somehow convinced me to attempt to make one today. 

In all of this, I had work, so forgive me but I'm so exhausted right now.

I had heard about the performance a few years back when my friend went to watch it. I was booking my tickets for another play from the same writer and saw that The Adventures of Alvin was also showing so I jumped on the opportunity and booked two tickets. 

It is such an amazing peformance! Please go see this the next time it comes to Perth. In fact, the creator Tim Watts, is actually from Perth. It is a one man show performed by Watts, and he uses a mixture of live acting, animation and puppetry to present a heartwarming story about Avlin Sputnik who is on a mission to save the world and find his love. 

It is honestly one of the best shows I've watched. It is so beautiful and so simple. Watts is truly talented. This was such a masterpiece. 

Tonight was also the first time I've been into to State Theatre Centre (aka Heath Ledger Theatre). It is absolutely beautiful inside. The lounge and lobby areas are so neat and tidy with lovely furniture and lights, while the theatre itself is quite small. Definitely make an effort to watch a play on at the State Theatre, it's such a lovely place. 

Cool lights projected onto the ground outside the entrance of the State Theatre Centre.

My second something new was making a nacho hat!!! Never in my wildest dreams would I think that I'd be able to make one. Mind you, this first attempt was not perfect. I have to improve on the presentation of the hat most of all. The dough didn't stick together very well, so when I tried to roll it out, it would crumble. This made it incredibly difficult to get a nice thin layer and put that on top of my hat mould. 

Instead, I had to just dump the dough onto the mould and try to make the shape using my hands. That is why the edge of the hat is all rough and crooked. But nevermind, my next attempt will be better :)

I used a very specific type of flour called masa harina flour to make my nacho hat. I could've used just normal flour, but it would not have had that corn chip taste. I used the recipe from here and ended up using three times as much in order to cover my hat mould. 

The nacho hat ended up tasting really nice. Tasted like corn chips :) My hat was a lot thinker than normal corn chips, but it still went well with salsa and guacamole. My brother and I tried to eat it with just the two of us, but it was just too big...and we ran out of salsa. 

I only ended up using the blue bowl and not the little one on top.

Front row in the Regal Theatre

My brother Peter has spent the last 3 to 4 months practising for his school's performance in a competion called Wakakirri. It is where schools create and perform a story in the form of dance. 

He participated in Wakakirri two years ago and the school came second in Western Australia! I still remember going to watch that first performance like it was just yesterday. Time goes by so quick!

Even though I have seen a Wakakirri performance before, I'm counting this as my something new for the day because my dad and I ended up getting tickets in row A. I'm talking the very front row. We were sitting about a metre away from the stage. I've never been so close to the stage in the Regal Theatre before. Mind you, it would have been nice to be sitting that close when we went to go see Slava's Snowshow the other day, but oh well. 

Everything just feels different when you're in front row. I could actually see up the hosts nose. I can't say it was any better though, because it was actually hard to see what was happening towards the back of the stage; but none the less, it was so nice to see all their cute faces up close.

These kids were so enthusiastic and so cute. You have no idea how cute they were. There was an adorable boy dressed as a pig with a little pig nose, and one school had about 10 students about 8 years old dressed as cupcakes with big paper mache cherries on their heads. Adorable!

I love when kids are passionate and enthusiastic about things. I was so proud to see Peter up there too. He can actually bust a move really well. 

We weren't allowed to take photos, but I had to sneak at least one in to show you guys how close we were :P

Slava's Snowshow

Today has been marked down in my diary for a few months now, in much anticipation for it's arrival. A few months ago my friends and I booked tickets to go see Slava's Snowshow after hearing about it from my friend Nhi. 

We had one look at the YouTube video and we were totally sold. It looked amazing. Creepy sad clowns, awesome music, confetti and a chance for the audience to interact in the show? A combination that I couldn't say no to. 

It was all quite spectacular. The two main clowns were great. There was barely any dialogue, but it really didn't matter because the actors who played the two main clowns did such a good job expressing it all in their body language and gestures. 

There wasn't really a storyline for the show. I like to think of it as lots of little stories all strung together. The atmosphere was quite eerie throughout the show, with some great comedic parts along the way. 

My dad really loved the music and it accompanied each scene really well. The special effects were also a huge part of the show. There was confetti snow, bubbles and fog from the smoke machines, and although the stage props were minimal, they were used so well. There was one scene where they push out a boat made from a bed, broom and curtain. It sounds simple, but it looked so beautiful as it seemly floated on stage with the fog. 

This really was such a visually spectacular show.

It was also so much fun! ***SPOILER ALERT*** 
There were parts during the show where the clowns would come into the audience and walk over the chairs. During intermission, they brought out water bottles and went around wetting the audience. There were just so many cheeky things they did to the audience. All in good fun.

I won't spoil the ending though :)

This is a great show for adults. Please don't think that just because there are clowns it's only for kids. It's actually quite creepy, so maybe brings kids who are 13 and over.